a good weekend in ankara

after a very low-key friday, we spent last saturday out and about with friends.  over dinner the weekend before, our friends asli & mehmet had suggested that we introduce each other to our favorite parts of ankara.  on saturday morning, they invited us to join them in ulus, at a little tea cafe for breakfast.  this place was far off the beaten path, and we never would have known it was there if they hadn't shown us.  it was chilly but we warmed up by eating the most delicious, fresh variety of gozleme (pastries with cheese, eggplant, minced meat, and feta) and tea.  we finished up with a cup of turkish coffee.

after breakfast we spent some time exploring a few shops, one in particular where asli and i bought old prints for a steal.  then asli took my to her 'carpenter guy.'  the guy owns a shop where he sells refinished turkish wooden antiques.  asli had commissioned him to create a cabinet for her from an old piece of carved wood.  while we were there i noticed several antique trunks.  one of them he opened for me, demonstrating how a little bell would ring when you turned the key.  it was a 'mother-in-law' trunk, he explained, where a bride's dowry would be stored.  the bell was so your mother-in-law knew when you tried to sneak a peak-- i'm glad this isn't used anymore!

we walked around the corner from the shop to what looked like a little storage unit.  there an older man (the father of the carpenter-guy, they run a father & son business) showed us the raw antiques they had in store.  when i saw this trunk sitting outside, with old wooden suitcases piled on top, i fell in love.  

the intricate copper designs are incredible!  that is a tiny mirror right in the middle, for good luck.  when i asked how much for the trunk, he told me 170 lira (this would include the purchase of the trunk, plus having them clean & restore it).  that's roughly $120!  i think i'm going back for this trunk.

we ended our time together in ulus with more food... this time at a meatball (kofte) restaurant.  by far the best kofte in ankara...

saturday night we were off to tom & lisa's for a halloween-themed dinner party.  tom cooked his famous ribs and served us 'bloody' pomegranate martinis.  we had a great night together with friends.

by sunday, ben and i were pretty wiped out ('that's what happens when you drink' grandma explained to us), but grandma had her own plans.  as soon as she got up, she got busy in the kitchen making her ici borek-- a pastry stuffed with minced meat and vegetables.  i of course helped, and we had fun working together on this relatively intricate process.  

cutting the hamur (dough)

sealing the first borek

i rolled out the dough balls & filled them, but grandma didn't think i was going fast enough

i could barely keep up with grandma!  she's had years of practice, of course.

grandma's getting way ahead of me

grandma finishes up the frying while i drink some much needed coffee

we enjoyed a delicious breakfast together & spent the rest of the day puttering around the house.  a good weekend, all in all. 

tonight we are packing and early tomorrow morning we'll depart for roma for a long weekend... we'll be sure to raise a glass of vino rosa de casa to you all, and post plenty of pictures when we return!

TÖMER

at the beginning of october, i enrolled in intensive turkish lessons at TÖMER, a language institute that's run by a local university.  i was really scared at first.  when i went to sign up, they had me sit for a 100 question exam, then write an essay, to test my level of turkish.  obviously this was just a way for them to determine what level i should start at, but still i found it intimidating.  i had taken the whole summer off from learning turkish (and as a result had forgotten some), plus from my exam they found that my turkish  didn't fit into one of their levels:  from taking lessons at the turkish american association & then with a private tutor, my knowledge of the language was all over the place.  so they started me at level 3 and i began lessons 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, straight away.  

i thought i was going to hate it!  the idea of sitting in a classroom with only a faint understanding of what was going on did not appeal.  but luckily, that's not at all how the lessons have gone.  first, i have kept up quite well with the lessons.  second, we have a really interesting class.  we started out as all women, until a guy from azerbaijan started with us this past week. everyone is from a different country... no exceptions!  we have all gotten to know one another via a series of languages.  when we need to help each other understand a lesson, a translation can go from turkish to arabic to french to italian to english, and sometimes we'll throw in a bit of farsi for good measure.  both the women from irak and iran asked me, at different times, if i didn't like them because i'm american.  i've been so glad for the opportunity to dispel that myth, and become their friend.

during our breaks we talk about our cultures and our languages, and mostly we talk in turkish.  we're all here for different reasons (ok ok, 3 of us are married to turks) and i think we all appreciate the opportunity to befriend other women who are going through a similar experience.   several of the girls are studying turkish with the hope of entering a turkish university.  some of them are living here with family and simply need better language proficiency to find work.  

for the final weeks, our assignment is to present on an aspect of our culture, in turkish.  i decided to present on thanksgiving, and baked a pumpkin pie so they could better appreciate the food i was describing (and hopefully be distracted from my terrible turkish).  they loved it!  none of them had ever tasted (or heard of) pumpkin pie.  our teacher ordered coffee & tea for everyone to enjoy their pie with, and we had a fun class of discussing americana and comparing cultural traditions.  then golnaz presented on her culture's wedding traditions (she is from iran, but her family is turkik).

our class, enjoying their pie, left to right:  the dude from azerbaijan, assya from algeria, nur from irak, didem (our teacher, who is turkish), golnaz from iran and francesca from italy.  missing are victoria from belarus and issa from estonia

golnaz, presenting on turkmeni wedding traditions

oh yeah, and the other good news?  is that i think my turkish has really improved.  i have to take next month off for a trip to the us, but i'm definitely planning to re-enroll in december.

just another benisms post

october in ankara has meant rain, dreariness, and more rain.  this leads to me not having much inspiration for blogging... that and the 4 hours a day i'm spending in turkish lessons.  so how about some of the latest benisms?  i realize it's been a while as some of these are dating back to the summer.  we're heading to roma next week so i'm sure i'll have plenty more to post after that, but for now, enjoy!

:: after breaking into 'the lion sleeps tonight': i feel very african right now, because of the world cup.

:: randomly on our drive home from work: 

ben: as soon as my owners left i'd start running around like crazy, jumping on the beds and the couches and everything- just totally crazy!

me: wait, is this if you were a dog?

ben: yeah.

:: on explaining his margin of error: my mistake thing here is pretty small.

:: while working on one of his model cars (a new and exciting hobby of late): i love this stage of modeling... it's sooooo... the future!  it's so unknown.  you just, you don't know what's going to happen (pauses, eyes get wide)... you CAN'T!

:: in response to my asking if he felt different being married:  no. i had already committed to this.

october fun in ankara

lots of fun was had this weekend.  it started on friday when i met julianne at the kuafor after work to have our hair done for the charity ball.  julianne brought a bottle of wine and we had a 'happy hour' while being pampered by the stylists.  every friday should end like this.

we spent the evening at a ball for a charity julianne works with.  it was a fun excuse to dress up and go out on the town, and we won some great prizes with our raffle tickets, including 2 hotel stays in cappadocia!

on saturday it was octoberfest at the german embassy... something 

we had all been looking quite forward to

anxious for our beer

octoberfest in a tent

beer wenches

for 34 euros we got unlimited food & beer and it was delicious

haddie, enjoying an unexpected german night during her visit to turkey

adam, being a ham

we all drank entirely too much beer, and had a great time doing it!

pals having fun

and being overserved

those germans really know how to cut a rug

it was good times had by all!

fall's here

this week fall finally arrived in ankara, and by this weekend it's supposed to be winter (snow!).  there is no time wasted on the changing of seasons around here-- we've gone from 80 to 60 (ferenheit) overnight, and now more like 50s with freezing cold rain.  it can be a bit jarring, this abrupt change, and leaves me homesick for upstate new york.  i miss the foliage and the smells and the apple picking.   but, i'm doing what i can to enjoy it & make it feel more like home.  last weekend we took a walk around the lake near our house (more like a big pond) where we collected pinecones for my fall decor and actually smelled woodsmoke.  we also saw about 20 rabbits hopping around-- i guess the tea cafes raise them there?  anyway, it was nice & made me feel a little bit like i was home.

the selection of fruits and vegetables in the market have changed once again with the season.  ben's grandmother picked up these goosberries, which were a treat.  did you know that one of these tiny things has more vitamin c than 2 oranges?  in turkish they are called 'golden strawberries,' though to me they really taste nothing like a strawberry-- more like a citrus tomato.  anyway, they certainly are pretty to look at and apparently a fall fruit here in turkey.

gooseberries

and in turkey, as i'm sure everywhere else, apples abound right now.  apples are my favorite part of fall, so i've been making the most of them.  last weekend i made applesauce, a pie, and for sunday dinner a delicious apple sage cream sauce over white meat (shhhh... i'm not telling what kind).

apple pie

apple sage sauce

this weekend we'll partake in another fall tradition: octoberfest at the german embassy.  it'll be my first octoberfest experience, and from what i hear, it's a lot of fun.  it's going to be outdoors (in a tent), and they are calling for snow, which could be interesting... but, i'm sure the beer will keep us warm!

we take things literally

adam & julianne had us over for dinner on saturday.  when ben and i found out it was going to be a 'mexican night,' we took one look at each other and before i knew it i was google-ing moustache patterns.  

pretty soon, we'd come up with this:

thanks to our friend mickey for lending the sombrero & gun from his bar.

you just never know what you're going to get when you invite us for dinner.